UPDATED: Tuesday, Aug. 28, at 1:02 a.m.

Interstate 81, the main north to south highway that bisects the center of Syracuse, has become a major source of controversy as the state works to finalize a plan to rehabilitate or replace the aging highway.

Multiple options are still being considered by the New York State Department of Transportation. Those options include rebuilding the overpass, constructing an underground tunnel and eliminating the raised stretch of highway in downtown Syracuse altogether.

History of I-81

After then-President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act in 1956, billions of dollars in federal aid were made available to help build a national highway system.

Two years after the act’s passage, a plan to build an elevated highway above Almond Street in Syracuse was finalized. The project opened in stages between 1959 and 1969.

According to the NYSDOT, completion of the final 1.4-mile viaduct section of I-81 was delayed due to property acquisition and resident relocation issues.

Michael Tuttman, a civil engineer at Robson Forensic, a transportation engineering consulting firm, said in March 2017 that a 50-year lifespan for bridge projects was standard engineering practice at the time. I-81 was constructed with a 50-year lifespan to keep costs reasonable, he said.

In an August 2016 speech, New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the I-81 construction “a classic planning blunder,” Syracuse.com reported.

 

Why has I-81’s construction been controversial?

Critics of the elevated highway, including Cuomo, say the viaduct splits the city in half, separating University Hill from downtown Syracuse.

The neighborhood west of I-81, which includes public housing complexes like Pioneer Homes, has some of the most concentrated black and Hispanic poverty in the United States.

When I-81 was built in the 1950s and ‘60s, the highway cut through the Pioneer Homes complex. Today, some public housing buildings are on the east side of the viaduct, directly below the State University of New York Upstate Medical Hospital. The rest of the homes are on the west side of the highway.

It’s been more than 50 years since I-81 opened — is it dangerous?

No, but as the infrastructure ages without replacement, portions of the highway in Syracuse have been deemed “structurally deficient” or “functionally obsolete.”

According to the National Bridge Inventory Database, structurally deficient bridges have one or more defects requiring attention. A 2013 I-81 Corridor Study found seven structurally deficient bridges along I-81 and I-690.

Functionally obsolete bridges are no longer adequate for the task they were originally built to handle. Bridges with this designation may be structurally secure but might not have enough room for an emergency shoulder or enough lanes to handle current traffic flow, according to the bridge database.

The corridor study also found about 45 functionally obsolete bridges along I-81 and I-690.

Neither designation means the bridges are dangerous to the public. A NYSDOT spokeswoman told The Daily Orange in March 2017 the bridges are inspected every 12 to 24 months depending on their condition.

If a bridge is open to the public, it’s safe, the spokeswoman said.

 

Wasim Ahmad | Staff Photographer

Are there plans to repair or replace the I-81 viaduct?

Yes, but none have been finalized.

Several options to repair or replace the I-81 viaduct were considered by the NYSDOT, including a tunnel that would direct I-81 traffic underground beneath the city.

In October 2016, the NYSDOT announced that it had narrowed the I-81 project options, and two alternatives remained. The tunnel option was eliminated in part because of high cost, but Cuomo eventually ordered the option be reviewed again.

The first proposal — called the viaduct alternative — would demolish the deteriorating I-81 viaduct and replace it with a new overpass. The reconstructed viaduct would include wider lanes, a wider shoulder and aesthetic upgrades along Almond Street, according to the NYSDOT.

The viaduct alternative would cost about $1.7 billion, according to the state.

The community grid alternative — the second option — would eliminate the I-81 viaduct altogether. Traffic would be dispersed along existing city streets and the highway currently called Interstate 481 would be renamed I-81.

In the community grid alternative plans, Almond Street would be reconstructed as a surface street with bicycle lanes, pedestrian amenities and aesthetic treatments, according to the state.

The community grid alternative would cost approximately $1.3 billion.

Why hasn’t the decision been made yet?

In January 2017, under pressure from New York state Sen. John DeFrancisco (R-Syracuse), Cuomo ordered all replacement options — including the tunnel proposal and others that were shelved — to be reviewed again by an independent consultant. WSP/Parsons Brinckerhoff, an engineering consultant, conducted the review. The results of the review were released in December 2017.

The study showed that the previously eliminated tunnel option was “technically feasible,” Syracuse.com reported. The tunnel could cost more than $4 billion and take nine to 10 years to complete, making it the most costly and time consuming option. Many experts don’t currently support this idea.

The study considered seven different tunnel options as well as two depressed highway options, concluding that both depressed highway options were unfeasible.

The firm which conducted the study recommended the “Orange alternative” option, Syracuse.com reported. This was considered the best among the tunnel options, according to the study, because it was relatively short and because it would surface relatively close to the existing I-81 and I-690 interchanges, Syracuse.com reported. This option would cost $3.6 billion, plus $10 million a year in maintenance costs.

The NYSDOT is also conducting an environmental review study to determine the potential environmental consequences of each I-81 alternative.

What does the timeline look like now?

With the report completed, the NYSDOT will review its findings and decide how to proceed. A NYSDOT spokesperson said in January that it’ll likely be another year, if not longer, before a report outlining the preferred option is available, Syracuse.com reported.

However, the next report may come too late for any federal funding, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in February. President Donald Trump’s $4.4 trillion budget plan, released in February, would slash funding for interstate highways, potentially jeopardizing the city’s I-81 plans.

The White House’s plan would cut the federal Highway Trust Fund – the principal source of federal aid for transit projects – by more than $100 billion over the next 10 years. This would make it harder for New York state to compete for federal funds.

How do residents feel about it?

In a June 2017 letter to Cuomo, several representatives from New York, including Republican Rep. John Katko (R-Camillus), urged the governor to choose the best I-81 replacement option regardless of the cost, Syracuse.com reported.

More recently, residents called on lawmakers to support the community grid option that they feel would help alleviate economic segregation in the city. Mayor Ben Walsh voiced his support for this option at a panel in March.

At a June forum, community members continued to rally behind the community grid option. They debated with groups like Save 81, which endorses the overpass option in order to preserve local businesses. Other supporters said they think the overpass could be architecturally beautiful.

Lawrence Davis, undergraduate chair of Syracuse University’s School of Architecture, voiced his support for the community grid in a Syracuse.com editorial in April.

If the overpass is widened, some residents said they are concerned that people living at Pioneer Homes will be forced out of the area.

In more than a dozen interviews with The D.O., public housing tenants that live near I-81 in the East Adams Street neighborhood expressed increasing frustration and anxiety with what several called an unnecessary delay of the interstate’s replacement project.

“A lot of people are just uncomfortable … they have to wait for somebody else to let them know what’s going to happen to their home,” Latoya Allen, the city’s 4th district common councilor, told The D.O. in January.

The Daily Orange will continue to update this Explainer as new information about the I-81 project is released.

Published on September 19, 2017 at 12:27 am

Contact Jordan: jmulle01@syr.edu | @jordanmuller18